Dehumanization of women’s bodies: During a crisis
The dehumanizing of women’s bodies: During a crisis
Operating in this society as a woman exposes me to countless insecurities which revolve around my physiological being. There will always be a looming threat and the fear of an existential threat for me as a woman, in this society due to the patriarchally manufactured hierarchy that exists. When I was growing up, I constantly had to think about the limitations and restrictions that were placed on me. For instance, something as simple as deciding what to wear became almost a household decision. From censoring what I wanted to say, from being told to sit in a certain way, from being a “good girl” I somewhere felt the hardships that lay ahead of me.
Being an IR student, I was introduced to various theories and its theorist giving their perspectives on feminism and security issues, etc. Furthermore, we were also introduced to Ken Booth in the class. In his book Security and Self Reflections of a Fallen Realist, he looks at the concepts of "I," "me," and "we." Booth recognizes that while “me” is an aggregation of social circumstances, “I” is the active agent who reacts, and the "me" is the identity ascribed to an individual by the profession. Ken Booth gives us a detailed account of how the self governs our understanding of the world. He begins as a realist but soon becomes unhappy with Realism's theoretical assumptions which he connects his evolving ideas to his self-development by saying that people grow and evolve themselves over time.
In my previous blog post, I had discussed the Yemen crisis and its relativity to security, In this blog post, I would like to further delve into the nuances of feminist security studies and talk about it in more detail. As I mentioned in my previous post, Yemen ranked last in the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap index for 13 consecutive years.
Women have been severely affected by the Yemeni conflict which has had a dreadful impact on all civilians. Women's vulnerability to violence has been exacerbated by negative gender stereotypes and patriarchal attitudes, as well as a biased legal system and economic inequity. Citizens are suffering from a severe economic dilemma, shattered infrastructure, and several other issues as a result of the fighting. Due to societal gender conventions, women have had limited mobility which has indeed resulted in the issues of lack of access to food, water, sanitation, and health care services that have steadily exacerbated as the war continues. Since the conflict began in 2015, it has led the country more to a socioeconomic catastrophe. The conflict in Yemen threatens to wreak havoc on women's rights, leaving them vulnerable to assault and extortion. Yemen's patriarchy is well-rooted, which has drastically limited women's quality of life and is constantly striving for their rights against some of the world's most abhorrent regimes.
Women are considered second-class citizens in Yemen, even marital abuse is not specifically addressed by law due to scare of being arrested or abused most cases are left unreported. If we apply the analytical lens provided by Lene Hansen, In situations of violent conflict, women have often had to struggle with gender-related security concerns. Addressing this less-discussed subject correlates with the Copenhagen School's theory of shifting away from the traditional notion of international security while taking into account that women all over the world are influenced as individuals, not just as a collective.
Furthermore, another analytical lens we can use to understand the perils of the Yemenese women is what Cynthia Enloe suggests that modern militarization has the ability to radically alter society. The basic premise is to view militarization as a multi-faceted process rather than a single event. Militarization is described by Enloe as a "socio-economic process," which is demonstrated in the reading. Although the world has altered and adjusted ideas of "liberal progress" structurally, I believe that men and women implicitly agree to the idea of feminine subservience even today.
Another impactful factor of the Yemen problem is the recognition that sexual violence takes multiple forms, including rape, forced prostitution, marriages, genital mutilation, and forced nakedness. Sexual violence in war zones is just too frequent not to be part of a wider political scheme, hence a "weapon of war." In understanding this phenomenon, it must be grounded in a gendered view of a conflict zone. This must account for not only labor but other aspects of women's lives like physical assault.
The Yemen crisis brings into focus the sort of atrocities women have to go through. Different walks of life bring out different forms of discrimination against women. On a personal note, As an International Relations student, I have become more aware of the theoretical underpinnings and perspectives that various security approaches have to offer. I feel that given my knowledge about this I’m able to comprehend how security needs to be ensured not just in the commonplace but also in the cases of international conflict.
References:
Booth, Ken. Security and Self: Reflections of a Fallen Realist. Routledge, 1997.
Enloe, C. H. (1989). In Bananas, Beaches & bases: Making feminist sense of international politics. essay, University of California Press.
Hansen, Lene. ‘The Little Mermaid’s Silent Security Dilemma and the Absence of Gender in the Copenhagen School’. 2000. Millennium 29 (2): 285–30
Amnesty International. (2021, October 11). Yemen: One of the Worst Places in the World to be a Woman.
Hello Srishti, I must commend you on this well-articulated and insightful essay! This shifting of the security lens from state politic to a ‘body politic’, made this intervention of yours into the Yemen crisis, a particularly fascinating one. Truth be told it’s quite a difficult to do critical analysis of one’s subjectivity, however having been exposed to a similar gendered experience, in the process of growing up, I really could resonate when you mentioned “From censoring what I wanted to say, from being told to sit in a certain way, from being a “good girl” I somewhere felt the hardships that lay ahead of me”. Staying true to Booth’s formulation of “believing is seeing” I particularly liked the way you applied the inter-subjective lens gained from your lived experience, to analyze the Yemen crisis.
ReplyDeleteAs Lene Hansen once articulated, in the deliberate exclusion of a ‘body’ from epistemological focus not only prevents the examination of individualizing strategies employed in keeping security problems from appearing at the collective level. Thereby when you bring forth the nexus between GBV (gender based violence), state economy and legal system in the Yemen crisis, a crisis that is rather punctuated with competing discourses of multiple military masculinities, local patriarchy, it in turn rather nuances the security lens. And shows that the entity of security provider and the means of providing security may not be subtracted from the cause of insecurity itself, infact both can go hand in hand which in turn further marginalizes the marginalized( here the Yemeni women)
I particularly appreciated your invocation of Cynthia Enloe to show how the penetration of an effeminized body also functions as a ‘weapon of war’. For the message that is delivered is that of the masculinity of the perpetrator being powerful and dominant, whilst at the same time emasculating the victim, presenting it as weak, and powerless. Thereby drawing from this strain I wanted to enquire about your views on the construction of “masculinity” in Yemen’s crisis? Or precisely the toxic cycle of competing masculinities between the Saudi backed government and the Houthi rebels, that has resulted in this continued process of gross human rights violation in Yemen.
Hi Srishti,
ReplyDeleteFirstly, I loved how you brought in the personal aspect which is very relatable too as at times we're subjected to the deeply rooted patriarchy which sadly begins right at home at a very young age. Secondly, I found it interesting how you brought in the plight of Yemenese women in the ongoing crisis. Furthering Away from a Realist concept of security, it is true that women and children are the worst victims of militarization and face consequences even after several years of its passing in different walks of life which brings out different forms of discrimination against them. Even in my sense of self, it is constant and evolving similarly how Booth perceives security to be essential and constituted by the political arena.
Dear Srishti, I thoroughly enjoyed reading your blog as it provided a great overview of looking at the Yemen crisis through the lens of feminist security studies. Your choice of the Yemen crisis to dig deeper into how women are affected far worse and in different ways is commendable and eye opening. You do a great job in explaining the crisis to someone with no prior knowledge like me.
ReplyDeleteUsing the Copenhagen School's theory to draw a comparison provided a greater sense of understanding too. However, in my honest opinion, I would have appreciated it if you would go into more detail about how Ken Booth’s book ‘Security and Self Reflections of a Fallen Realist’ relates to the crisis itself.
Lastly, I would like to compliment you as it was a brilliant read that kept me interested in the issue throughout.